Output on plain paper is wanting, with gray text and washed-out colors. But photos on photo paper range from near to true photo quality, a redeeming feature that makes the Z735 a reasonable choice if you want an inexpensive home printer.

File the Lexmark Z735 ($50 street) under old things are new again. Most of us can remember when a substantial number of ink jet printers let you switch between a tricolor cartridge for printing in color and a black cartridge for printing text. The Z735 reaches back to the days when printers created black solely by combining cyan, yellow, and magenta.

Lexmark argues it's a step forward, with easy, one-cartridge setup, and with today's technology better able to create composite black. In either case, the result is a printer that handles graphics reasonably well, photos better, and can work in a pinch for text.

Definitively aimed for home use, the Z735 is small and lightweight, at 6.0 by 14.8 by 8.8 inches (HWD) and 4.4 pounds. Setup is certainly easy enough: Snap in the one cartridge, load paper, connect the cables, run the automated installation routine, and print. Be sure to buy a USB cable along with the printer, however, since the package doesn't include one.

Given its approach to creating black, it's not surprising that the Z735 earned a poor rating for text. Fewer than half our test fonts were easily readable at 5 points, one highly stylized font needed 20 points, and text at all sizes was gray instead of black. It's good enough for most schoolwork short of college, but bring your teacher a carrot instead of an apple, to help prevent eyestrain. By comparison, the iP1600 earned a rating of good for text, and the HP 3940 was at the high end of good.

Graphics, as well as photos on plain paper, had a slightly faded look, with pastel shades rather than fully saturated, eye-catching color. Graphics also suffered from minor banding, even in high-quality mode, and a tendency to lose thin lines. Even so, graphics earned a rating of good. The output is easily good enough for schoolwork or for printing something at home to bring into the office. On this score, the Z735 compares reasonably well with the iP1600 and HP 3940, with graphics at the high end of good for both.

Photos, which earned a rating of very good, are the Z735's strong point, with most photos printing at true photo quality on photo paper. The most serious problem we saw was a slight bluish-green tint on our monochrome test photo. Less important but still deserving mention was a tendency to lose the distinction between overlapping objects with similar colors, like an orange and a grapefruit in a fruit bowl.

Most photos were good enough to print snapshots for friends and family or even put them in an album. By comparison, the iP1600 also earned a rating of very good, but the HP 3940 yields a bit lower quality, at the high end of good. You need to be careful with the Z735's photo output, however, since it's easily smudged by handling with even slightly wet hands.

Performance (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com) was better than you might expect. The total time on our business applications suite was 26 minutes 26 seconds, compared with 21:52 for the Canon iP1600 and 33:02 for the 3940. On almost all files that included color, the Z735 was close behind the iP1600 and in some cases faster. Predictably, however, it fell behind when printing text, because it takes longer to lay down three ink colors than one. It also did well on photos, averaging 2:17 for each 4-by-6 and 4:59 for each 8-by-10, compared with 1:58 and 4:01 for the iP1600.

One small advantage for the Z735 is that it costs less to buy ink, at $20 (street), compared with, for example, $44.98 (direct) for one set of the Canon printer's two-ink cartridges. But what really matters is cost per page, and there's no reason to believe the Z735 will be cheaper to run. Based on manufacturer's claims (which may not be comparable), the Z735 may save you 1 cent per color page compared with the iP1600, but it will cost 6 to 7 cents more per monochrome page.

Given the better speed and quality of the iP1600, it's hard to recommend the Z735, especially with the iP1600 selling at the same price. But if you can find it at a lower price, and particularly if you are primarily interested in printing photos, it's certainly worth considering.

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M. David Stone is an award-winning freelance writer and computer industry consultant. Although a confirmed generalist, with writing credits on subjects as varied as ape language experiments, politics, quantum physics, and an overview of a top company in the gaming industry. David is also an expert in imaging technologies (including printers, monitors, large-screen displays, projectors, scanners, and digital cameras), storage (both magnetic and optical), and word processing. He is a recognized expert on printers, well known within the industry, and has been a judge for...
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